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AUTOMATIC FILLING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR INDUSTRIES

Saubhagya Tandon*, Shreya Srivastava**, Sandeep Pal***


ABSTRACT
In this era of industrialization, technological revolution/automation is fast shrinking the need of
humans to assist machinery. Looking at the current industrial scenario, birth of new products and
private brands is sharply raising the competition among industries. In order to hold out the promise of
timely delivery of product, high tech automated production is essential. The concept of automation is
so versatile that it can bring radical development in almost every field. Keeping view of present
requirements, this paper proposes a filling management system for industries which is a complete
application of automation. The notable thing about this project is its high degree of flexibility and its
remote control. A prototype of commercial bottle filling system, controlled using programmable logic
controller (PLC) is proposed and the whole process is monitored using supervisory control and data
acquisition (SCADA). This system provides the provision of mixing any number of liquids in any
proportion. Its remote control and monitoring makes the system easily accessible and warns the
operator in the event of any fault.
Keywords: PLC; SCADA; Bottling Plant; Automation

INTRODUCTION
Beverage market offers opportunities that can
be transformed into success only by those
companies that have technology to take it
beyond competition. High degree of flexibility
is its prior need. Also industries face many
other challenges. The pressure to continually
Scientific Research Journal of India Volume: 3, Issue: 2, Year: 2014
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increase production volumes has stressed older
systems and has increased maintenance
requirements. For manufacturers, this creates
two problems: higher costs and increased
downtime. Production managers are being
challenged to reduce cost, wastage and
downtime. New technologies are required that
will reduce water usage, increase energy
efficiency and minimize downtime in high-
speed beverage production environments.
Increasing competitive pressures, ever more
stringent legal regulations, rising costs of
commodities and energy and consumers whose
preferences are subject to rapid change
beverage companies today are forced to
increase their flexibility and operate with
maximum efficiency at the same time. The key
to this problem is an integrated process
approach. After all, if all processes are
perfectly coordinated with each other and
reliable communications have been established
between all parts of the manufacturing plant, it
is much easier to address the big challenges
1
.
In small industries, the refilling system usually
operates in manual mode and even this is true
for some other industries also. Literature
suggests that microcontrollers are being used in
these industries as it brings a cost effective
solution for controlling the process
2
. Although
PLCs are costly, still those are also used in
industries. The implementation of PLC for
commercial bottle filling plants is not discussed
widely in literature, therefore in this work an
endeavor is made to bring out the important
facts about its commercial use. In addition the
use of SCADA is also implemented in this
project work which is a high-tech tool for
providing monitoring through the remote
location. The system developed in this work is
a complete package of filling management
system for industries. It provides flexibility
with reliability. It also provides an extra
advantage of production flexibility and ability
to extend or modify an existing plant. It
provides remote monitoring of the entire plant
that makes it easily accessible.
The paper has been discussed mainly in four
sections: first section gives the introduction
followed by the system description where the
general block diagram and process flow is
discussed. The complete prototype description
is discussed in section III and finally
conclusions are given in section IV.

SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
This project is a complete application of
automation. The various process of this system
is controlled by PLC and is remotely controlled
using SCADA. PLC and SCADA are heart of
the system. The system is controlled according
to the programmed PLC. To monitor the
processing of the entire plant SCADA is used.
Figure 1 shows the block diagram of the whole
process.
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Fig. 1. Block Diagram of the whole process

There are two inputs to the PLC out of which
one is the output of the proximity sensor. The
proximity sensor senses the presence of the
bottle at the conveyor belt. In this work
metallic bottles are used which are detected by
a proximity sensor. Infra red sensor is another
choice that may be used in place of proximity
sensor. When the bottle is sensed by the
proximity sensor, a signal is sent to the PLC
through signal conditioning circuits. The PLC
then operates the two dc motors to start the
mixing process and deliver the mixture to the
third tank. In real time systems AC drives may
be used for the purpose. Depending upon the
need, proportion and amount of liquid to be
filled in bottle, the closing and opening
operation of valves connected to motors is
controlled through PLC. This section further
broadly discusses the main parts of the system:
A. Programmable Logic Controller, PLC
PLC is a programmable device developed to
replace mechanical relays, timers and counters.
PLCs are used successfully to execute
complicated control operations in a plant. The
PLCs helped reduce the changeover time from
a month to a matter of just few days. PLC
consists of an input/output (I/O) unit, central
processing unit (CPU) and memory. The I/O
unit acts as the interface between PLC and real
time systems. All logic and control operations,
data transfer and manipulation work is done by
CPU.
PLCs provide the advantages of high reliability
in operation, flexibility in control techniques,
small space and computing requirements,
expandability, high power handling, reduced
human efforts and complete programming and
reprogramming in a plant. The PLC is designed
to operate in the industrial environment with
wide ranges of ambient temperature, vibration,
and humidity and is not usually affected by the
electrical noise that is inherent in most
industrial locations. It also provides the cost
effective solution for controlling complex
systems
3
.
B. Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition,
SCADA
PLC & SCADA combination gives the
advantage of better monitoring and control of
the plant. SCADA enables engineers,
supervisors, managers and operators to view
and interact with workings of entire operations
through graphical representation of their
production process. SCADA runs on a PC and
is generally connected to various PLCs.
SCADA constantly gathers data from plant in
real time, stores and processes it in the
database, evaluates and generates alarms,
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103
displays information to plant operators,
supervisors and managers and can issue
instructions to PLCs on the plant floor
4
.
C. Filling System
The filling system consists of three tanks where
liquids are kept and mixed according to
proportion given in PLC program. For large
industries any number of tanks can be used to
mix any number of liquids. Hence the system
using PLC provides large flexibility. AC drives
for main motors with valves and conveyor belt
arrangement is used in industries for filling
operation. At the appropriate timings motor
connected to valves is made ON and
accordingly the valve opens. The filling system
consists of subsystems that include Conveyor
system and Sensors. A sensor is a device,
which responds to an input quantity by
generating a functionally related output usually
in the form of an electrical or optical signal.
Sensors are designed to have a small effect on
what is measured; making the sensor smaller
often improves this and introduces other
advantages also. Here sensors are used to detect
the bottles so that there is no wastage. Hence
system has also given the advantage that even if
the program is running and there is no bottle on
the conveyor the motor 3 will not start and thus
valve 3 will also not open, so no spill of liquid
takes place. The valve 3 will open only when
there is a bottle and filling will be done.
Conveyors are especially useful in applications
involving the transportation of heavy or bulky
materials. Conveyor systems allow quick and
efficient transportation for a wide variety of
material. The conveyor system is used to
transport bottles from one end to other. At the
initiating end the bottle is empty while at the
destination end filled bottle reaches.

PROTOTYPE DESCRIPTION AND
CONTROL IMPLEMENTATION
In this project, a prototype illustrating the
commercial bottling plant automated using
PLC is developed and the whole process is
monitored using SCADA. The sensing
mechanism used in the system takes care of
unnecessary spill or wastage. The system
provides best accuracy and precision in the
mixing any number of liquid in any proportion.
The system is completely monitored using
SCADA and plant may be stopped or
controlled through SCADA in case of
emergency.
In this system, liquids can not only be filled but
this system can also mix liquids in desired
proportion. In this system, there are two
different liquids in two different tanks which
are mixed in third tank (final tank). The mixing
can be done in any proportion, say 2:3; 5:5; 4:6;
etc. Motor 1 and Motor 2 shown in Figure 1
control the proportion which gets mixed up in
the third tank. Finally, this liquid is filled in the
cans or bottles and the biggest advantage of this
system is with automation, it provides remote
monitoring and controlling. That is, the entire
working of the system or filling plant is
displayed on the SCADA screen from where
the whole plant can be monitored and
controlled.
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Fig. 2. Process Monitoring through SCADA
Screen
The plant can be started from the SCADA
screen as well as it can be stopped from the
same screen only, in case of any fault. Thus no
waste or harm to the plant if any fault occurs.
Figure 2 shows the process visible on SCADA.
PLC is the main part of the automation plant.
The plant is automated by the programmed
PLC. PLC used is MICROLOGIX 100 and
supply to PLC is provided through SMPS.
Ladder programming is the main programming
method used for PLC. Ladder programming is
done using software RS LOGIX ENGLISH.
The program is then downloaded on PLC. As
per the program written for this work, when the
system is switched on, motor 1 starts and runs
for stipulated time and valve 1 opens and liquid
reaches in tank third. Then when motor 1 stops,
motor 2 starts and in the same way liquid from
tank 2 reaches third tank. The liquids get mixed
up in the third tank. When the bottle is present
in front of third tank motor 3 starts and valve 3
opens to fills the bottle. 24V solenoid valves
are used for the purpose and proximity sensor
in used for sensing the bottle. The bottles are
placed on the conveyor belt which is moved
using dc motor drive in this case. In industrial
systems ac drives are used. When the bottle is
sensed by the sensor, a signal is sent to the PLC
which stops the drive motors and after the
filling process is over, the PLC again starts the
drive motors to move the conveyor. The
conveyor moves till the presence of other bottle
is sensed by the proximity sensor.
This complete working is monitored on
SCADA screen interfaced with the PLC. RS
232 cable is used for the interference of PLC
and SCADA and wonderware Intouch software
is used for SCADA. SCADA screen shows all
the working of the plant i.e. the whole
movement of the conveyor/filling system is
visible on the SCADA screen. Here SCADA
provides the remote control operation of the
system. It is not necessary that the SCADA
screen be placed near to PLC. If there is any
error in the working of the plant, like if any
motor does not start at its set time or runs for
more time, will be displayed on the screen and
the plant can be immediately stopped from the
SCADA screen itself. This feature also helps
the system in avoiding any spill or wastage.

CONCLUSION
This paper has proposed an application of
automation illustrating a PLC based fully
automatic untouched liquid filling system. The
system meets the demand of high-speed
production using the least mechanism
requirements. The system has proved to work
Scientific Research Journal of India Volume: 3, Issue: 2, Year: 2014
105
effectively avoiding unnecessary spill or
wastage of liquids. The system also provides
high accuracy and precision in proportion of
liquids mixed. Although proposed system
illustrates the mixing process of two liquids,
any number of liquids may be mixed in varying
proportions. It is true that the use of PLC is a
costly affair particularly for small industries but
it offers many advantages that overcome its
cost. One of the additional features of the
proposed system is the use of SCADA that
makes it controlled through a remote location.
Complete monitoring of the system is possible
through SCADA and in fact the process may be
stopped or started by SCADA screen. This
feature is particularly very useful in case if
some fault occurs in the system.

REFERENCES
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T110-V1-7600.pdf
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Volume Correction, International Journal of Engineering Research and Technology IJERT, vol. 2, Issue 3,
March 2013, pp. 1-4.
3. Ahmed Ullah Abu Saeed, Md. Al-Mamun and A. H. M. Zadidul Karim, Industrial Application of PLCs in
Bangladesh, International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, vol. 3, Issue 6, June 2012.
4. Stuart A. Boyer, Scada Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, International Society of Automation USA, 4th
Edison, 2009.
5. Mallaradhya H. M., K. R. Prakash, Automatic Liquid Filling to Bottles of Different Height Using Programmable
Logic Controller, in proceedings of AECE-IRAJ International Conference, July 2013, pp. 122-124.
6. T. Kalaiselvi, R. Praveena, Aakanksha R. and Dhanya S., PLC Based Automatic Bottle Filling and Capping
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Engineering, vol. 2, Issue 8, August 2012, pp. 134-137
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CORRESPONDENCE
*Department of Electrical Engineering, Ideal Institute of Technology, Ghaziabad, India, Email:
saubhagyatandon@gmail.com
**Department of Electrical Engineering, Ideal Institute of Technology, Ghaziabad, India, Email:
shreya.srivastava18@gmail.com
***Department of Electrical Engineering, Ideal Institute of Technology, Ghaziabad, India, Email:
sandeepiit2011@gmail.com